Barnes & Noble CEO Ronald D. Boire, who had been at the helm of the retailer for less than a year, has been shown the door.

On Tuesday, the bookseller announced Boire has departed in an unusually blunt press release. The company said its board determined Boire "was not a good fit for the organization and that it was in the best interests of all parties for him to leave the Company."

Its shares were last trading 1 percent lower.

The company also said its Executive Chairman Leonard Riggio will postpone his retirement. He had been scheduled to retire at the close of its annual meeting on September 14.

Barnes & Noble will immediately start looking for its next chief executive. In the meantime, Riggio and other executives will take over Boire's responsibilities.

The country's biggest retail bookseller, Barnes & Noble has 640 locations across the U.S. Its NOOK business has struggled as sales fell 27.4 percent in fiscal 2016. Amid stronger competition, retail sales at the company decreased 1.9 percent during the same period.